The current practice of no-till farming results in considerable plant residue being left on the field after a previous crop is harvested. This residue is especially thick when the previous crop is corn and managing this corn residue has become a big challenge. In order to promote residue deterioration, various ways of breaking down the residual corn stalks have been developed including placing chopping knife rollers and/or shredder rollers or rotary flail shredders beneath the row unit deck plates.
A known corn stalk residue treating system has been marketed by Deere and Company as the 600C StalkMaster™. This treating system includes stalk rolls located side-by-side beneath the deck plates of the row unit, with each roll including a plurality of longitudinally extending blades spaced angularly about the roll axis, with the blades of the rolls cooperating so as to engage and pull the stalks downward while crimping them along their lengths. A flail shredder including two pivotally mounted knives or blades is mounted for cutting the stalks cleanly, once the ears have been removed, so as to leave only a cleanly cut, short stubble rooted to the ground. A first gear case is provided for connecting driving power to the gathering chains and stalk rolls carried by each row unit, while a separate second gear case is provided for connecting driving power to the flail shredder. The first and second gear cases are respectively protected from overloads caused by the associated driven components coming into contact with rocks and other obstructions by first and second internal radial pin slip clutches located adjacent the gear cases on a power input shaft passing through both gear cases.
While the above-noted Deere residue treating system works well, it has the draw back that there is insufficient space available along the drive input shaft for slip clutches of adequate capacity to be used if the corn head is set up for harvesting narrow row corn. Also, the present Deere residue treating system is not easily switched between chopping and non-chopping modes.